The Contract
by busyprocrastinating
Summary: For hundreds of years, the Weasleys and the Malfoys have feuded. Every fight, battle, war has seen the two families on opposite sides. Yet, after the discovery of an old document, the two families struggle to find the balance between foe and in-law. Albus, meanwhile, struggles to find the balance between utter hatred and his growing attraction.


**Chapter One**

Albus stared, aghast at his grandfather. "Grandad, what is the meaning of this?" he demanded. "I will absolutely not be bloody married by the end of the year! Is this a joke? Did you get this from Uncle George?"

His mother quickly snatched the parchment from Albus' shaking fingers. One quick read through and she too fixed her eyes on Arthur Weasley. "How could you do this to Rose, Dad?" she seethed, her face turning the shade of the ever infamous Weasley hair.

Harry stonily stood behind Ginny. He had known what the parchment meant the second he had read it. Of all things he had expected his assistant to dig up relating to him or his family, this was not one of them.

Arthur Weasley sighed. "I have done this best I can to ensure that the repercussions of this contract do not fall too harshly on this family," he explained, wearily rubbing his eyes. "But this is our only choice, don't you see? If we don't fulfill the terms, the only other option would be to sacrifice one of our own and I will absolutely, under no circumstance, do that. This family has already lost so much, and while it pains me to hand this burden to Albus, please know that I am doing this in the best interest of the family, including yours."

Ginny whirled around to face Harry, her eyes desperately pleading for some sort of relief. "Harry, you've got to know what to do, right? There has to be some loophole or law or something that breaks it! Please, Harry."

Harry sorrowfully shook his head, eyes shut close. "I've looked into everything I can. Every law, every book, anything, but the contract is legal, binding, and very much a threat. I even got Hermione to help me and we dedicated three weeks of our life doing research to prevent this, but I was just delaying the inevitable. There's nothing we can do."

Albus, who had stayed silent in shock after her initial outbreak, suddenly sat up in realization. "What about Dommie? Rox? Lucy? Molly? Louis? They're all eligible! And all of them are on good terms with him - it doesn't have to be me! You know I can't stand him - all we ever do is trade insults."

Harry shook her head again. "No, there are no other options. The contract specifically targets someone with magical parentage from both their mother and father - Molly and Lucy, having a muggle mother, cannot fulfill this term. And despite Dommie and Louis having wizarding parentage on both sides, because they are one-eighth Veela, they still aren't considered humans under wizarding law."

"But Rox, Roxie's still available!" protested Albus. "She has two pureblood parents! Surely the contract prevents me from being eligible; they wouldn't have wanted their son to marry a son of a half-blood."

"Except for the fact that Weasleys never associated themselves with Muggle-borns at the time of the contract and were every inch the pureblood family that the Notts or the Parkinsons are today," replied Harry. "Therefore, there would have been no reason to implement such a clause because it was believed to be so unlikely. And if you haven't forgotten already, Rox and Connor Finnegan have been engaged since June."

Albus slumped back in his seat, the fight seemingly lost. Ginny stared into the distant, fists clenching and unclenching, while Arthur uncomfortably sat there.

"Well," he finally said after a moment of awkward silence. "I best be going. Since my obligation as head of house to inform you of this matter has been fulfilled, I'll leave you all to discuss the next few steps." He took a moment to look at each and every one of them, eyes softening. "Never did I imagine something like this occurring, but I hope we can all make the best of the situation at hand."

Arthur walked around and gave everyone a hug, holding Albus extra tightly and whispering in his ear, "Stay strong Albus." With one spin and a crack, he was gone.

Harry crouched down to look Albus in the eye. "Albus, when you came out to us three years ago, we never expected something like this to happen. I know this isn't what you wanted in your future, but please know that your mother and I will support you no matter what and that we're so, so sorry this happened."

Albus nodded, but his head was miles away. Through a haze of thoughts, he heard himself say, "How do you even know that he likes blokes? Maybe he doesn't and he can find some unlucky witch to marry instead."

Harry sighed and stroked Albus' hair. "Before today, I had a conversation with his father, to see if he knew anything of the contract. He said he didn't and believe me, he wasn't any more pleased than you are. He requested that our end be fulfilled by a bloke because his son tended to swing that way. Unfortunately, you are the only male in our family who is not of age and is gay," he explained. "I'm so sorry."

Albus swallowed and stared at the ground.

"I guess that's it," he said. "I'm gonna get married to ruddy Scorpius Malfoy."


End file.
